When I was in Jr. High School, I would go running on the weekends with a couple of nerdy athletes from the neighborhood. Our destination was the wide open spaces of dirt, today known as the Pike in Long Beach, CA. Further along, if traveling on the Magnolia Street bridge leading to the Queen Mary, it forks off to Pier J. In 1979 this was one of the oldest and last fishing spots before the Port of Long Beach was built, and CMA-CGM moved in.
BRIEF HISTORY - Port of Long Beach, CA
1940’s
Birth of Long Beach Naval Shipyard,
Rosie the Riveter - Largest influx of women entering the workforce. Accurately building warships & munitions during WWII. American men were overseas.
1950’s
War is over - focus on domestic interior infrastructure.
Malcolm McLean drives a bobtail onto a ship, and containerization is born.
1960’s
Sea-Land purchased land for future terminal development with Maersk followed immediately after.
Route 66 - new role as an axillary highway. America’s roads, highways, interstates, and ports are established for future commerce.
1970’s
ISO perimeters introduced.
COSCO shipping, inaugurates international trade by calling the port of Long Beach.
Premier RO/RO destination for imported vehicles (Port of Los Angeles) for Toyota.
1986 - At 19 with 1-year completed from the Only school that offered Transportation courses in Los Angeles, I landed a position in the air export department with a freight forwarder. Twenty-year olds accounted for less than 10% of the International Logistics workforce during the 1980’s. The average age of my peers were thirty something and above.
International Trade, Freight Forwarding, Ocean, Air, and Trucking was a CLOSED community. Rarely advertised, or commonly mistaken for Civic Engineering. The Transportation Logistics industry is a unique field; that continuously moves twenty-four hours in the background globally. A mystery to the general public, when it functions well as the proof - is finding what you were looking for at the market. Restocked, available, from Germany, France, Peru, India, Mexico, China, Australia, from anywhere including domestically. Somehow more than 100 incremental checks & balances occur - including Customs regulations that happen daily without the general population aware. The nuances and strict guidelines that must be satisfied before commodities ever arrive at a retail store, or warehouse for final WIP value added production. This is a background industry: infrastructure.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE - What Those Guys Told Me…
My introduction to the Trade community from talented leaders in the 1980’s was this:
Play hard or go home. The model for an industry that is aware of the type of person needed to handle intellectual business dealings; without being derailed from the objective goal from petty office distractions. I accepted the challenge as a teenager among grown ups, and learned to navigate with the best. Below are some of those fundamental principles from respected leaders that knew how to deliver.
International Trade answers to government entities first, customers second. Satisfy the government benchmarks, to ensure smooth logistics.
Emotional discipline is much higher - requiring mental focus not easily distracted by unpleasantries of negative comments.
Trade equals the flow/interruption of currency - global economy.
If you make a sloppy mistake with the export / import documents, it’s a felony depending on the severity of the error. i.e. vessel explosion, downed aircraft from non-compatible loading of hazardous material, etc. You don’t just get fired for an error - this is international trade. Penalties, fines and possible jail time apply to Rockies or seasoned Logisticians.
Think military discipline knit together as a team regardless of personal likes/dislikes of colleagues, bosses, industry. Hit the goal, or go home.
Only the best team orientated Alpha’s made it into the industry. I wanted to be one of them, accurate and polished. So I stayed.
1990’s
China enters the WTO, shifting US imports almost overnight from Taiwan, Hong Kong & Japan.
Port operations issue: Lack of skilled Longshoreman to handle the overwhelming number of ocean vessels with Chinese imports.
Short term solution: Pay the Labor whatever they want, there’s 10-30 more vessels to work after today’s arrivals.
Creation of: Labor Contract renewal disagreements for the next two decades.
2000’s
September 11th, TSA created for Air.
C-TPAT compliant companies preferred within the WTO trade community.
Continued rumbling between Labor and Carriers over contracts. Fractures begin with BCO’s and ILWU local 13.
2010
Changing of the guards - major exodus of CEOs stepping down from Fortune 500 companies.
Numerous Silicon Valley executives retire, purchasing substantial amounts of land on the south island of Aotearoa (New Zealand).
2020 - Covid, global reset
2024 - Let’s take a closer look at the Board Games below…
Conclusion
Interestingly, Gone with the Wind was Margaret Mitchell’s only novel - that captured the lives of those in the south, and the devastating aftermath of gentlemen that fought with their bravado (emotions), but ignored the Intel that came from an unlikely source. In the end, Rhett Butler, gambled and made out quite well with elements of success akin to “the Commodore”, Cornelius Vanderbilt in real life. Bar none, Margaret Mitchell was one of the best American contemporary writers of history adding the drama of life, and a view of Southern folk commonly mis portrayed today.
Shortly before the onset of the Civil War the US had two (2) forms of currency, both fiat promissory notes without hard collateral backing: gold / silver, etc.
The Confederate Dollar was printed in the south, by statesmen & business owners.
Greenback Dollars, was printed in the north by the US Government.
Sure the Civil War was about the emancipation of slavery only? Or was there a banking issue at play for a global hard currency? Are the ocean carriers in Alliance with their BCO’s or is there a larger game of who will dominate global trade by 2030? We shall see.
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
King Solomon, third king of Israel, son of King David, before the Assyrian invasion 970-931 B.C.
Written by: Terry Leifi-Silverstein…not a ChatGPT
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